Charitable Giving Starts Close to Home

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Charitable Giving Starts Close to Home

The holiday season means many things to many people: family, friends, parties, gifts, and charity. Everywhere you go you can see the Salvation Army volunteers and their bells fill the air with a sound that is unique to this time of year.

Charity is important to the affluent and they given generously to charitable causes of all kinds. Spectrem research has found that a majority of the charitable dollars the affluent give end up close to home, in local organizations, as opposed to regional, national, or international.

Of the dollars donated, a vast majority went to help fund local organizations, often hospitals, community arts foundations, social services, and churches. National organizations were second in frequency with regional and international causes rounding out the breakdown of charitable donations.

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Poll - Green Investing

What cause will you donate to mostly this year?

	Education (like an Alma Mater)
	Political (like a political race)
	Social (like homeless housing)
	Health (like AIDs research)
	The Arts (like theatre)
	Other

Groups That Rate Charities

American Institute of Philanthropy publishes a “top-rated” link to many charities that have supplied documentation that at least 75% of their donations are used for charitable endeavors.

Charity Guide rates charities in terms of how many dollars it costs to raise $100. That is, what percentage of each dollar that makes it way to charity.

Charity Navigator rates 3,000 charities on a number of factors.

Give.org includes input from the Better Business Bureau Alliance.